Drug cartel
A drug cartel is a highly organized criminal organization that specializes in the production and distribution of illegal drugs. These cartels often engage in various other criminal activities, including human trafficking and money laundering, and they can have a significant impact on the communities in which they operate. Although drug cartels exist globally, many of the most notorious are based in Mexico, such as the Sinaloa Federation, which has been linked to a substantial amount of the cocaine, heroin, and marijuana smuggled into the United States. The economic reach of these cartels is immense, with estimates suggesting they generate between $19 billion and $29 billion annually from U.S. drug sales.
The history of drug cartels can be traced back to the 1970s in Colombia, where early operations like the Medellin and Cali cartels began smuggling cocaine into the U.S. As law enforcement efforts increased, cartels shifted operations to Mexico, leading to the emergence of powerful organizations such as the Tijuana and Gulf Cartels. The violence associated with these drug wars has resulted in thousands of deaths and widespread instability, affecting not only those involved in the drug trade but also innocent bystanders and officials. Efforts by the U.S. and Mexican governments to combat these cartels have included targeted operations to dismantle leadership structures, but the impact of these efforts has sometimes led to unintended consequences, such as the emergence of new cartels to fill the void left by those that were taken down.
Subject Terms
Drug cartel
A drug cartel is a criminal organization that controls the production and distribution of illegal drugs. Most drug cartels are large, commercial operations that are highly organized and well financed. Members of drug cartels are often involved in other criminal activities, such as human smuggling, human trafficking, money laundering, and even terrorism.
Although drug cartels operate in countries throughout the world, some of the most powerful are based in Mexico. Mexican drug cartels earn billions of dollars a year from US drug sales. Drug cartels' turf wars and executions destabilize communities and often take the lives of those not in the drug trade, such as bystanders, journalists, police, and government officials. More than eighty thousand individuals were killed in Mexico's drug wars between 2006 and 2015 alone.
History
The first drug cartels emerged in Colombia in the 1970s. Drug traffickers who had been smuggling marijuana into the United States in suitcases began smuggling small amounts of cocaine as well. The demand for cocaine in the United States was high, and the cocaine trade was very lucrative for the Colombian traffickers, who produced the drug in labs hidden in jungles for $1,500 per kilo and sold it for $50,000 per kilo. The infamous Pablo Escobar, once a common street thief, became the leader of the operation known as the Medellin Cartel.
The Medellin Cartel soon became wealthy enough to purchase small planes to fly the drugs directly into the United States. In time, the cartel purchased larger planes and even a small island in the Caribbean for the planes to refuel. Escobar was extremely violent and power hungry, however. Authorities believe that he was responsible for the murder of hundreds of government officials, police officers, and journalists. He began fighting with the Colombian government, and some members of his cartel turned themselves in to authorities in exchange for brief prison terms. Escobar was eventually shot and killed by police.
The Cali Cartel was also a thorn in Escobar's side before his death. Members of this cartel were taking business away from the Medellin Cartel. Leaders of the Cali Cartel kept a lower profile than Escobar and were less violent. They were also better at business. They reinvested profits from the drug trade into legitimate businesses. They paid off politicians and hired prominent attorneys to keep an eye on US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents and US prosecutors. They hired engineers to create communications equipment that could not be bugged. When the demand for cocaine in the United States decreased, the Cali Cartel began smuggling it into Europe and Asia. By the 1990s, however, the leaders of the cartel were tracked down and arrested. Even though they are in prison, the DEA suspects that they are still overseeing their enterprises.
When the United States made it difficult for Colombian drug cartels to export drugs during the late 1960s and early 1970s, Mexico became a major player in the cocaine trade. Two large cartels emerged: the Guadalajara Cartel and the Gulf Cartel. The Guadalajara Cartel was short-lived, however; when it kidnapped, tortured, and executed DEA agent Enrique Camarena, the US government went after its leaders, arresting them and dismantling the cartel.
In the late 1980s, the Tijuana Cartel emerged in Mexico. This large cartel shipped millions of dollars' worth of illegal drugs into the United States. The Tijuana Cartel was frequently at war with the Gulf Cartel and the Sinaloa Federation, which was formed by some former members of the Guadalajara Cartel. Led by Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, who was also known as El Chapo, the Sinaloa Federation proved to be the most powerful. Guzmán rose to power by using assassins to kill his enemies, including a judge in 2016. Using tunnels to smuggle drugs into the United States, the Sinaloa Federation became one of the most powerful drug cartels in the world. By 2016, the Sinaloa Federation distributed cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, ecstasy, and marijuana in the United States and controlled about 40 to 60 percent of Mexico's drug trade.
The Mexican government arrested Guzmán in 2014, but he escaped from a maximum-security prison in 2015. He was recaptured the following year. He was extradited to the US and subsequently convicted on various drug charges in a US federal trial in 2019, and sentenced to life in prison plus thirty years.
Impact
The United States has been fighting the war on drugs since President Richard Nixon declared drugs the national enemy in 1971. Since then, various strategies have been employed to attempt to eliminate drug cartels and reduce the flow of drugs into the United States. Among these was the "kingpin strategy" enacted by the DEA in the early 1990s. This strategy focused on eliminating the leaders of large cartels, either by arrest or death. In some respects, the DEA reached its goal with the kingpin strategy. In addition to taking out Escobar, six of the seven leaders of the Cali Cartel were arrested. Ironically, eliminating the kingpins did not reduce the amount of cocaine on US streets—it increased it. While the kingpins were overseeing their cartels, they managed to maintain a monopoly of sorts through violence and intimidation. Once they were out of the way, competition quickly arose to fill the void; the price of cocaine dropped, and the amount in the United States increased.
In the twenty-first century, the United States and Mexico have worked together to try to eliminate the drug cartels by arresting their leaders and members. Project Reckoning, which targeted the Gulf Cartel in 2008, led to the arrest of more than 500 suspects. Operation Xcellerator, launched the following year, targeted the Sinaloa Federation and resulted in the apprehension of more than 750 individuals. After Guzmán's conviction and sentencing, the decrease in the activities of the Sinaloa cartel and law enforcement's focus on members of that group allowed for the rapid growth and diversification of the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG). By late 2024, the Jalisco, Mexico–based CJNG was the predominant cartel, operating on every continent except Antarctica, according to the DEA.
In January 2025, President Donald Trump ordered the US State Department to designate Mexican drug cartels as "foreign terrorist organizations." While the executive order made good on one of Trump's 2024 campaign promises, analysts pointed out that the terrorist designation could complicate international business, strain US-Mexico relations, and restrict asylum claims.
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